wfn.org | Augsburg, the city of religious peace

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

In 1530 Philipp Melancthon tried to keep the church from being split

GENEVA, 20 October 1999 (lwi) - The Roman historian Tacitus considered
Augusta Vindelicorum the most beautiful colony in the Province of
Rhaetia. Until 14 B.C. it had been Damasia, the capital city of the
Licatian Celts. But as soon as the Romans renamed it after their Emperor
Augustus the town grew visibly in importance, standing at the crossroads
of several trade routes. There was also an early Christian community
there, according to credible reports of the martyrdom of Saint Afra in
the year 304.

Its present name, Augsburg, harks back to the Roman colony. This German
city on the banks of the River Lech became famous for its role in
Renaissance and Reformation history. From the end of the 13th century
the emperor and nobles of the Holy Roman Empire's German nation held
their parliaments here. By the end of the 15th century, Augsburg was the
most important business and financial center north of the Alps. The
activities of the Fugger and Welser families in Augsburg extended to
Latin America and East Asia. Money flowed in growing streams through
their account books, including money earned from indulgences on its way
to Rome. (See article on Luther and Fugger)

Jakob Fugger "the Rich" (1459-1525), as he was called, dared to write to
Emperor Charles V: "It is a known fact that without my help, Your
Majesty would not have gained the crown of the Holy Roman Empire."
People talked about the four million ducats, a sum unimaginable in those
days, which the Emperor owed his banker in Augsburg.

Martin Luther set foot in Augsburg in 1518, and met Cardinal Cajetan,
the papal envoy, in Fugger's house. This meeting with the young monk
from Wittenberg was supposed to put an early end to the turmoil Luther
had unleashed by nailing his 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg's
castle church. All that was needed was for Luther to recant. But he
refused, and he fled the city right afterward.

When the Reichstag met again in 1530 and the Protestant princes
presented the Emperor with the Confessio Augustana, (CA) - their
Augsburg Confession, Luther had long since been outlawed by the Emperor
and banned by the Pope. He dared not even be present at the Reichstag.
His friend Philipp Melancthon negotiated on his behalf. Melancthon wrote
the Confessio Augustana as a reply to the charges brought against the
Reformation in the 404 theses of Luther's opponent Johannes Eck.
Melancthon was seeking peace and conciliation, unfortunately in vain.
The Emperor saw to it that the document was rejected.

After years of conflict, and a victory in battle against the Protestant
princes, the Emperor tried to banish the Reformation by force. The
"Leipzig Interim" of 1548 granted the Protestants the married priesthood
and the Lord's Supper with the bread and cup for the laity, but they
were to obey the bishops and Pope and celebrate the mass in its old
Latin form again.

In the years that followed, however, the Emperor could not completely
break down the power of the Protestant princes. In 1555 he had to agree
to the "Peace of Augsburg", which was supposed to guarantee the peaceful
existence of Protestant and Catholic areas side by side. But this could
not yet be called real tolerance. There was freedom of conscience only
in the free cities of the Empire - the rule followed everywhere else was
that princes decided what their subjects should believe.

It was only after the cruelty and suffering of the 30 years' War that
the Peace of Westphalia, again signed in Augsburg, introduced the
principle of parity. The Protestant and Roman Catholic populations of
the city had to share power. On the one hand this reinforced their
awareness of how different each was from the other, but on the other
this ruling made it possible for confessions to exist peacefully side by
side. Questions of faith were no longer settled by the decisions of
political majorities.

When they confirm the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of
Justification, by signing the Official Common Statement in Augsburg on
31 October, the Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) will be
reminded of what this city has meant for the Reformation. This is
especially true of the Confession Augustana, with which Philipp
Melancthon tried to prevent the split. For Luther he went almost too
far. He himself could not tread so softly, Luther wrote to his friend in
Augsburg.

Even so, Luther too hoped that the division would be overcome. "I am
worried that we will never again come so close together as we did at
Augsburg," he stated at the end of the 1530s. That worry was justified.
It has taken almost half a millennium for the fellowship of Lutheran
churches and the Roman Catholic Church to meet again in Augsburg to take
a decisive step towards overcoming the division of the church.

(The LWF is a global communion of 128 member churches in 70 countries
representing 58 million of the world's 61.5 million Lutherans. Its
highest decision making body is the Assembly, held every six or seven
years. Between Assemblies, the LWF is governed by a 49-member Council
which meets annually, and its Executive Committee. The LWF secretariat
is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information is the information service of the Lutheran
World Federation (LWF). Unless specifically noted, material presented
does not represent positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various
units. Where the dateline of an article contains the notation (lwi), the
material may be freely reproduced with acknowledgment.]

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Lutheran World Information
Assistant Editor, English: Pauline Mumia
E-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org
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